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The Attorney General of Connecticut and Environment and Human Health, Inc. report on a serious pesticide exposure issue

Press Release

[Hartford, Connecticut, July 2, 2002] The Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, along with Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI), a non-profit organization composed of doctors, public health professionals and policy experts, is alerting the public to the potential danger of exposures from lawn-care pesticides sold in stores. Torn and broken bags of lawn-care products have been found to be spilling toxic chemicals, with some of the stores selling grocery items, including produce, as well.

Currently, no federal or Connecticut state laws regulate how or where the lawn care pesticide bags may be sold, or how spills should be cleaned up and disposed of to safeguard customers and store workers from pesticide exposures.

"Pesticides are poisonous," said Blumenthal. "Haphazard storage or use can be hazardous to humans, not merely pests. Whether on your lawn or spilled in a store, lawn-care pesticides can pose special health risks to children."

Nancy Alderman, president of Environment and Human Health, Inc., said, "It is almost impossible to believe that one is allowed to sell lawn-care pesticides in what amounts to large, porous bags and that these products are allowed to be placed right next to the lettuce if one wants to. Neither the state nor the federal government presently have any laws regulating this issue."

Products such as "Weed-and Feed," "Weed-B-Gon," "Turf Builder with PLUS2 Weed Control"--all names that might seem innocuous to the consumer--actually contain pesticides such as 2,4-D, which has been often linked to Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and MCPP, which some studies have linked to soft tissue cancers. Products such as "Bug-B-Gone" and "Turf Builder with Insect Control" also might sound quite benign to the consumer, but they contain pesticides such as Carbaryl and Diazinon. Diazinon is presently being phased out of use by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because of its high toxicity level. Carbaryl is suspected of being an endocrine disrupter, and both Diazinon and Carbaryl are neurotoxins, meaning that they are toxic to the nervous system.

"Pesticides, including insecticides and herbicides, are intentionally toxic substances, and children may be especially susceptible to adverse effects on their immature endocrine, immune, respiratory, and nervous systems," said John Wargo, member of EHHI and Professor of Risk Analysis and Public Policy at Yale University. "Children are also at special risk, since they are closer to the ground where pesticides settle. Some pesticides are neurotoxic, others are carcinogenic, and still others act like human hormones once they enter our bodies. Workers face significant risks as well, due to their handling of these products and the extended time they spend during the work day within the stores. Workers are not trained to understand the toxicity of these pesticides nor the special care needed when cleaning up leaking packages."

Susan Addiss, past commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, explained, "For years, we have protected our children from drugs with child-proof containers. Yet we allow children to be exposed to toxic pesticides in paper bags that can tear and spill. To add to the risk, when the bags do break, the spilled pesticides are often swept up and thrown in the trash, further adding to contamination and human exposures."

David Brown, public health toxicologist and founding member of EHHI, added, "The pesticides found in many of these products are found in combinations and yet they have only been tested for their toxicity by looking at them one at a time. This means that when you try to assess the health implications of a product such as "Weed and Feed" that contains three herbicides--2,4-D; MCPP and Dicamba--one cannot find any studies or the necessary data that show how these chemicals work together. Thus the public has no way of determining the health effects of these chemicals in combination."

Robert LaCamera, M.D., a pediatrician and board member of EHHI, said, "We must better protect our children from these chemical exposures. Many families take their children into stores where these products are sold and they have no idea that they could be putting their children at risk from these products."

Alderman concluded by saying, "We need better state and federal laws to protect the public from these toxic exposures. At the federal level we need better packaging that will be both unbreakable, non-porous, and child-proof; and at the state level we need laws that will: (1) make sure that these products are never sold where food is sold; and (2) require that these products be sold in outside, spill-proof facilities. These products are poisons and we need to start treating them as such.

 

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